In virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs), virtual desktop operating systems and applications, hosted on virtual machines (VMs) running on centralized servers, are delivered as managed services to end users via a network. Such centralized and automated management of the virtualized operating system, applications, and user data provides increased control and cost savings.
Traditionally, separate instances of virtual desktops and virtual applications do not interact with each other, which can be an inconvenience for users. For example, a user may often need to switch between the VDI client windows for a virtual desktop and a virtual application. Such switching may be particularly inconvenient when the virtual desktop is in full-screen mode and the VDI client needs to be restored to its previous window size before the user can switch to the other VDI client window for the virtual application. Another inconvenience is the inability to perform certain operations such as copy-and-paste and drag-and-drop operations between a virtual desktop and a virtual application, which requires copying or dragging contents out of one of the virtual environments into the local environment and may thus be forbidden for security reasons.